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Home Educator's Family Times Online May 2013 CollegePlus CollegePrep Learn Our History Featured Articles A Predictor of Homeschool Success It’s easy to say that “I don’t feel that way!” But think about it. Do you figure if homeschooling doesn’t work out, you can always send your kids back to school? When the doctor’s prescription not only doesn’t help your child but makes him worse, do you immediately go back for a different prescription instead of educating yourself on the problem first? And when your government tells you it will handle its enormous debt, do you figure it knows what it’s doing and go back to your day? Because these are all signs of reliance on institutions. Read full article... To teens early in the 21st century: By JOHN O. ANDERSEN You are at a major crossroads. You are not yet vested in the adult world. As such, you are in a better position to make objective choices than many adults. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. ”--Upton Sinclair That's the problem with too many adults (even well-meaning and otherwise intelligent ones). Their perspectives are clouded by self-interest and ego. As a teen, on the other hand, your perspective is relatively uncluttered, enabling you to make positive choices that will have long term implications. Read full article... Parents are responsible for their children's education, period. Whatever you are thinking about your children’s education at this point, If unwilling, the current agenda is suspect and should not be supported,either by money or participation. If unable, then the torch must pass tomore capable, caring hands. There’s only one logical place for the buck to stop – in your lap. Sure, it’s heavy. You’ve never carried this kind of weight before. Yes, it’s scary. The unknown always stirs fear and self-doubt. But keeping responsibility for the family’s education within the family is the price you pay for freedom of spirit for you and the kids. Read full article... The Adventure of Raising Boys Boys are a different breed. Ask any mother of the male gender, especially if she has a couple of boys with no sister in between to tame them. There’s a wildness in boys that just doesn’t appear in girls. And sometimes we moms are left standing with our mouths agape, wondering what My youngest two boys are only 18 months apart. Several years ago I took them to a Mommy and Me Music course. One day while we were waiting for class to begin my little guys started wrestling on the floor. I honestly don’t know where my head was. Wrestling is not appropriate behavior for a classroom experience, but for some reason it didn’t faze me. I didn’t even notice it until the teacher (mother of two girls), said very sweetly, "Umm . . . is that okay?" Read article... A Child’s Place is in the Kitchen; How Cooking Advances Learning by Laura Grace Weldon It’s easier to cook when our kids aren’t in the way. Besides, bubbling pots and sharp knives are hardly child friendly. But there are many reasons why our children belong in the kitchen. One is the way their learning advances as they stir, chop and converse with us. What may seem like average culinary tasks are actually rich educational projects for them. Yes, it takes longer when Mason snips cilantro, Sophie reads the recipe aloud and Mia mixes. A lot longer. And you’ve got places to go, probably places to take your darling children like T-ball practice or that great science program at the museum. That’s how we parent our kids these days — we eat and run to keep up with our busy child-centered lives. But research shows that exactly the sort of learning that happens during hands-on,purposeful experiences (like cooking together) is highly valuable. There’s a lot less research showing that our beloved children benefit from rushing to adult run programs. Royal Academy now offers more personalized services and a virtual classroom experience Press Release Royal Academy Education, Inc. a Maine Recognized School and Homeschooling service provider, is opening a second office in New England in order to service the needs of its growing operations worldwide. Penny Cote, MA and Shirley Minster M.Ed, Administrators of Royal Academy Education & Home Education & Family Services, have partnered to enhance educational services to current home educators and build upon technologically advanced opportunities in the digital world. According to Penny, “a world of knowledge is at our finger tips; with the right tools we are able to guide an exceptional educational process for a student anywhere in the world, real time; we are doing that today through our Virtual Online Personal Presence classes and tutoring.” Read more...
Homeschooling for Safety I’m not used to hearing homeschooling being recommended by people like Dennis Miller, but in the wake of the awful event at Sandy Hook, I can see where shaken parents all over the country are looking at their children and thinking, “How can I protect them?” when dropping them off at school each day no longer looks like a safe thing to do. The Tenth Intelligence by David H. Albert That best portion of a good man's life, I have on occasion wondered what it might have been like to go through life as a Robin. I never had the opportunity to find out. In the second month of the first grade at P.S. 131, my public elementary school in New York City, we were separated into “Bluebirds and Robins”. (I have since discovered that in other schools there were also “Sparrows”, who were “Special Ed” children before Special Ed was invented, those destined to ride “the short bus.”*) I don’t remember any test being involved; we were just told we were either Robins or Bluebirds and that was that. Read Full Article... Americans Warned: Homeschoolers Stripped of Rights BERLIN -- Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that homeschooling is not a parent's right. It is a statement some are saying should frighten American parents. Nations like Germany and Sweden show that when governments take away homeschooling rights, it's a slippery slope to no parental rights. America the Refuge or Not The Romeike family came to the United States from Germany five years ago hoping to find refuge. They wanted to homeschool their children in freedom and a federal judge granted them asylum. Addicted to Experts by Linda Dobson Book Excerpt from The Art of Education "We have a right," our forefathers cried once upon a time, “to think for ourselves." We have surrendered that right, not to a dictatorial, hostile monarchy overseas, but to our own government's institutions. And oh, the tangled web these institutions have woven. It all begins in school, folks. By law, it is required that you attend. (That you learn is not required, that school be the best place for you to learn is not required, just that you attend.) Read Full Article... A Child’s Place is in the Kitchen; How Cooking Advances Learning by Laura Grace Weldon It’s easier to cook when our kids aren’t in the way. Besides, bubbling pots and sharp knives are hardly child friendly. But there are many reasons why our children belong in the kitchen. One is the way their learning advances as they stir, chop and converse with us. What may seem like average culinary tasks are actually rich educational projects for them. Yes, it takes longer when Mason snips cilantro, Sophie reads the recipe aloud and Mia mixes. A lot longer. And you’ve got places to go, probably places to take your darling children like T-ball practice or that great science program at the museum. That’s how we parent our kids these days — we eat and run to keep up with our busy child-centered lives. But research shows that exactly the sort of learning that happens during hands-on,purposeful experiences (like cooking together) is highly valuable. There’s a lot less research showing that our beloved children benefit from rushing to adult run programs. From Previous Issues Stretch Like Elastigirl! By Barbara Frank In the movie “The Incredibles,” a pair of retired superheroes marry, have a What Kids Learn From Chores Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the Here are some of the benefits kids derive from assigned chores. Much Too Early by David Elkind (Editor's Note: Children must be protected from early institutionalization - and Children must master the language of things before they master the language of In one sentence, Froebel, father of the kindergarten, expressed the essence Early Childhood Education: The Case Against Direct Instruction of Academic Skills By Alfie Kohn "The earlier [that schools try] to inculcate so-called 'academic' skills, the Some of the most ambitious and expensive educational evaluations conducted in CollegePlus Awesome prizes and life changing experiences await those who enter the College + Missions Scholarship Contest. Find out how you can win $5,000 towards your degree and an amazing life experience by clicking below. Click here for Details... Taking Care of the Homeschooling Mother (or Father) We hug them, love them, teach them, and share with them - wiping away tears, assuring them that monsters are not in the closet or under the bed, even helping them through algebra. We are our children's caretakers and we care for them so deeply and completely that we sometimes forget to care for ourselves. If we get too stretched out and burned out, we aren't as effective at taking care of others very well. One of the things that I learned through my early years of homeschooling and being a full time mom was that I had to take care of MOM first. One of the best analogies for this is the statement that is made when you are going through the safety talk before takeoff on an airplane - when the oxygen masks drop in an emergency, the adult should put their mask on first, then assist the child with theirs. We can't help them if we are incapacitated - that's my interpretation. And this holds true in all that we do, particularly when it comes to parental well-being and the individual feeling of fulfillment. Read article... Teens: Who They Really Are by Alison McKee It seems to me that the overall opinion about teenagers is that they are to be dreaded and endured. I've come across this attitude more than once. As a parent, I have to admit that I have had my share of moments of dread. To be fair, though, I also have to admit that bad moments are not all there is to parenting teens. Most of the time our teens are simply normal everyday kids. They have their sore spots and they have their moments of stardom, but the rest of the time they are quite unremarkable. When we lose sight of this fact, we tend to focus our attention on the extremes, thus leaving teens feeling as though they are only worthy of our recognition when they are either shining or having a rough time. I've lived with teens long enough to know that this is a trap that is easy to fall into. Read article... Shedding the Adult Agenda by Barbara Frank I’ve always admired unschoolers for their relaxed approach to learning. Yet while my own style of homeschooling has become much more relaxed over the years, I will never be called an unschooler because I am incapable of being one. It is simply not in my personality. Do the math: I’m a first-born (yes, there are Kevin Leman books on my shelves), public-schooled, Missouri Synod Lutheran (Lutherans live for and by their routines), child of a career military man. Let’s face it, I was never meant to be an unschooler. Read article... Let's Write! Writing Prose With Flow National Writing Institute (by Dave Marks) The following exercise is designed to teach in about five days, students who are in grades six through ninth, that: 1) ideas in sentences can be connected; 2) ideas can flow from one sentence to the next; and 3) they can make ideas in their writing flow from one bit of information to the next one. This exercise speaks directly to the student and you shouldn’t have to read it or interpret it to your children. Give it to them and tell them that everything that they might need to do it is contained within it. Don’t help them with it until they get stuck. Read article... Homeschooling and the All Important Family The homeschooling movement is absolutely exploding with growth. Since 2000, the homeschooling population has been growing at the astounding rate of at least 10 to 20 percent per year. Literally millions of families are homeschooling in the United States alone. What is it that draws so many people to this trend? Through all the talking and listening I have done with hundreds of diverse homeschoolers across the country, one common theme has emerged as the most important advantage to homeschoolers: family unity. This element of homeschooling is of the utmost importance to homeschoolers, who consider it the cornerstone of (and the greatest boon to) their children’s social development. Read article... "Homeschool Split-Personality Disorder" ... A Recovery Program by Diane Flynn Keith Do you vacillate between child-led, developmentally appropriate, interest-initiated unschooling on one hand, and traditional, structured, academic-based education on the other? These mood-altering swings in methodology creep up unexpectedly on homeschooling parents and are often exacerbated by events beyond their control. I know. I am recovering from homeschool split-personality disorder. |
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